Youth Fair to add extra weekend during 2015

Fairgoers will get three extra days of fun in 2015 at the popular Miami-Dade County Youth Fair, which announced it added a fourth weekend to the fair’s calendar date of Mar. 12-Apr. 5, 2015.

“In response to the overwhelming increase in Youth Fair attendance and positive feedback from our guests, local businesses and educational and agricultural partners, the board of directors voted unanimously to extend the run time of the fair for the first time in more than three decades,” said Robert Hohenstein, president and CEO of the Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition.

The Youth Fair, which has operated 18 days since 1983, saw a 22 percent spike in attendance the past two years at its Tamiami Park fairgrounds. One in five Miami- Dade County residents, or 600,000 guests, visited in 2014, making it the largest fair in Florida. The Youth Fair ranks as one of the Top 30 fairs in North America.

In another move, the board will give The Youth Fair a chance to rest before and after the Miami-Dade County Public School’s spring break by closing the gates for two Mondays and two Tuesdays, Mar. 16-17 and Mar. 30-31.

“We are testing the waters to absorb the weekdays that are traditionally the slowest during the event,” Hohenstein said.

The Youth Fair is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that awards more than $300,000 annually in college scholarships, cash premiums and awards to local public, private, charter and home school students. To date, the Youth Fair has awarded more than $10 million to Miami-Dade students to help them achieve higher education. In 2014, it awarded $90,000 in college scholarships, including $7,000 to winners of Miami-Dade County Public School’s inaugural Elie Wiesel Foundation Prize in Ethics Essay Contest.

The Youth Fair is the only venue where students can showcase their educational, art and science achievements all in one place and be rewarded for their efforts. More than 40,000 student projects are exhibited annually to more than half a million families, friends and fairgoers.